Police: Cape man beat convenience store clerk

CENTERVILLE – Centerville resident Vinicius Carvalho, 27, is facing assault and robbery charges after he allegedly beat a gas station clerk late Friday over a pack of Marlboros, according to the police.

CENTERVILLE – Centerville resident Vinicius Carvalho, 27, is facing assault and robbery charges after he allegedly beat a gas station clerk late Friday over a pack of Marlboros, according to the police.

The clerk, 47-year-old man, was taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis for treatment.

Police were called at 11:40 p.m. to a Mobil station at 1734 Falmouth Road because of reports of a dark-haired man punching a clerk and knocking him to the ground, according to Barnstable Police Sgt. Sean Sweeney.

Two witnesses told the police that the man, with dark spiked hair, came into the gas station and wanted to buy the cigarettes with a $50 dollar bill, according to Sweeney. The clerk said he couldn't break a $50, and the man became enraged and began to threaten to beat the clerk, according to the witness statements.

The clerk again said he couldn't make change, and the man then came around the counter, punched the clerk's head and then as the clerk tried to get away, stuck the clerk with closed fists.

The man then took a pack of cigarettes from behind the counter, the witnesses said, and he then began to swing wildly and knocked the clerk to the ground. The clerk was motionless on the ground, but the man continued to yell at the clerk and then kicked him in the side.

Witnesses provided the police with a video of the encounter, made on a cell phone, and a description of the assailant's car, a black Audi, and part of a license plate number, Sweeney said. From that information, police were able to identify a person who lived a few houses away from the Mobil station. When police visited the apartment of the vehicle owner, they found Carvalho, who told police he beat the clerk because the clerk declined to sell him the cigarettes because of Carvalho's race.

Police arrested Carvalho, but he was later released on $2,500 bail. He will be arraigned Monday in Barnstable District Court on charges of unarmed robbery, assault and battery and assault and battery by dangerous weapon, Sweeney said.